You can’t inspect a computer network the way you inspect a line of show dogs. Dozens of processes are at work at any moment – all within a motionless rack or an innocuous beige case – and no one has enough eyes to watch the status of everything. While you stop to fill out another requisition form, files fly down wires, web servers serve up pages, data servers accept and log transactions, and CPUs execute millions of instructions every second. The need for network monitoring has been around for nearly as long as the need for networks. This month, we look at some tricks and tools for keeping watch.

Professional admins with tightening IT budgets are always looking for new tools that will help them do more with less. This month we feature some popular open source applications for deploying, configuring, updating, and monitoring software and systems on the network.